Front Porch Blog
Updates from Appalachia
A Tennessee homecoming for energy savings
Amy Kelly is returning to her roots in the Volunteer State as Tennessee Energy Savings Outreach Coordinator for Appalachian Voices. She’ll be tapping into the natural ingenuity of local residents to help strengthen communities by increasing energy efficiency programs in the region.
It ain’t easy living on bottled water
Amy Brown lives in Belmont, North Carolina, with her two children. Since spring, she’s been living on bottled water. Her tap water, she’s been told, is contaminated by Duke Energy’s nearby coal ash pits. This is her story.
DENR is a “BOOR”
The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources is acting like–to use its own term–a “bureaucratic object of resistance.” The agency’s creative interpretation of its mission statement is just one reflection of the McCrory administration’s broader hostility to the notion that public servants have a responsibility to protect the natural resources and therefore the public health and welfare of the Tar Heel state.
Coal Ash: It’s not just toxic, it’s radioactive!
This week, a study conducted by Duke University was published in “Environmental Science and Technology” which concluded that coal ash is more radioactive than its parent coal or soil, and that the radioactivity may exceed safe levels for human exposure.
Clean Water Laws Wrestle With Coal
From The Appalachian Voice: America’s environmental regulations have hampered the coal industry to varying degrees for decades, and though those rules can protect communities from pollution, the law alone is often not able to secure clean water. Here are some of the trouble spots.
